Gowns of the type used especially in hospitals have been the subject of many improvements, especially in recent years as required by developments of techniques employed in the medical field. Some of the gowns have sleeves or sleeve-forming areas, while others omit sleeves. The present invention is of the latter type. In essence, the invention comprises a simple gown principally for use in a hospital and composed of a pair of front and rear panels connected at one end of each other in a manner to provide an opening through which the head of a person is projected to mount the gown on the patient.
The most pertinent prior patents on such general arrangement are as follows:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. 1,497,685 Hoyme June 17, 1924 U.S. Pat. No. 1,575,357 Milner March 2, 1926 U.S. Pat. No. 3,557,385 Hendrickson Jan. 26, 1971 U.S. Pat. No. 4,547,907 Netsky Oct. 22, 1985 U.S. Pat. No. 4,587,671 Rodriguez May 13, 1986 et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,837,863 Van Scoy- June 13, 1989 Mosher U.S. Pat. No. 4,975,984 Sting Dec. 11, 1990 U.S. Pat. No. 5,001,784 Orlando, Jr. March 26, 1991 ______________________________________
Essentially, the patent to Hoyme shows a gown comprising a somewhat long rectangular panel with a central opening through which the head of a person extends and two slits respectively parallel to side edges of the panel extend from the end or one half of the panel to form tie members which extend through openings near the edge of the opposite half of the panel. The arrangement does not afford any appreciable wrap-around effect or overlapping of opposite edges of the panels.
The present invention also affords one alternate embodiment in which there is in one shoulder region of the gown a lateral opening extending from the head-receiving opening to one edge of the shoulder portion to form a pair of relatively short flaps which overlap when disposed on a person and a single pair of tie members permit tieing said members to form a shoulder-covering arrangement. Considering this in relation to the Netsky patent, it will be seen that two pairs of tie members are require and there are no overlapping members which provide greater comfort to a person wearing the gown. The remaining patents in the list are of general interest.